What breed of hen?

[Cowmansam]

Had loads of different poultry from eBay eggs some very smart stuff that would be 50 plus quid each as a poult for somones second rate birds when you can get there best stuff in the eggs

 

[The Ruminant]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I spent last night multi-tasking (combining a zoom call about soil carbon with internet searches about the different breeds of hen!)

I actually want them all! But in the end thought the Dorking sounded perfect (thanks @bobk ). A rare breed, but surprisingly productive egg-wise and reputedly will continue to lay all through the winter months. Not huge numbers of eggs per year but it’s the consistency. It’s also said to be a marvellous table bird which is also very appealing. Other traits that swayed me:

- They go broody quite easily (useful in the early stages to help me build up the flock);
- They are excellent foragers
- They have a very tame and calm personality - apparently of mixed with other breeds they’re likely to be at the bottom of the pecking order but as a single breed they sound great.

Found a supplier of eggs and have two dozen on order.

 

[Devil's advocate]

Vote for tradionall first cross such as RIR x Light Sussex or Rhode Island Red X Maran. Black rock hybrids even better.

Poultry is expensive to house/feed you need eggs plus pol pullets are vaccinated

 

[ShooTa]

weve been using mars bars - and rhode rocks... pretty decend all told. looking at welsummers for stock expansion or sussex.
mobile ones seem to go broody less... AND oh god the eggs./. so amazing.

 

[Will 1594]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I spent last night multi-tasking (combining a zoom call about soil carbon with internet searches about the different breeds of hen!)

I actually want them all! But in the end thought the Dorking sounded perfect (thanks @bobk ). A rare breed, but surprisingly productive egg-wise and reputedly will continue to lay all through the winter months. Not huge numbers of eggs per year but it’s the consistency. It’s also said to be a marvellous table bird which is also very appealing. Other traits that swayed me:

- They go broody quite easily (useful in the early stages to help me build up the flock);
- They are excellent foragers
- They have a very tame and calm personality - apparently of mixed with other breeds they’re likely to be at the bottom of the pecking order but as a single breed they sound great.

Found a supplier of eggs and have two dozen on order.

Have you got a good incubator

 

[Guleesh]

Our first time incubating resulted in 1 live chick, who turned out to be a cockerel, well, sort of a cockerel.... He/She was very modern in their thinking and turned out to be gender neutral... we think.

 

[The Ruminant]

Have you got a good incubator

Yes, bought a very good one last year, and a brooder. Unfortunately it wasn’t good enough (on day 19 of incubating, which turned out to be our hottest day of the year) to block out the 40 degree temperature that the inside of the portakabin rose to.

 

[Chickcatcher]

Just a bit of info on incubation only just become fully aware of the total importance of incubation if the eggs are not quite up to temperature you will delay the hatch BUT if you over heat them you will kill them quicker than a fox.
As mentioned elsewhere we take the eggs from incubator onto the farm now around 18 days from "Setting" placed on a bed off straw shaving mix atmosphere is heated to 35-36degC eggs will generate heat and we are finding when checking egg temp the eggs will rise in temp to about 38C as they start to hatch.

 

[beefandsleep]

Just a bit of info on incubation only just become fully aware of the total importance of incubation if the eggs are not quite up to temperature you will delay the hatch BUT if you over heat them you will kill them quicker than a fox.
As mentioned elsewhere we take the eggs from incubator onto the farm now around 18 days from "Setting" placed on a bed off straw shaving mix atmosphere is heated to 35-36degC eggs will generate heat and we are finding when checking egg temp the eggs will rise in temp to about 38C as they start to hatch.

Interesting, I’ve hatched loads of eggs in an old brinsea poly hatch over the years and the biggest failures I’ve had have been at point of hatch. I’ve never thought about turning the temperature down for the last day or two, would you recommend it?

 

[The Ruminant]

Interesting, I’ve hatched loads of eggs in an old brinsea poly hatch over the years and the biggest failures I’ve had have been at point of hatch. I’ve never thought about turning the temperature down for the last day or two, would you recommend it?

I’ve got a Brinsea 28-egg incubator. I’d be interested to know this too!

 

[Chickcatcher]

My experience so far only done 3 batches but total 600K eggs, listened to Knowledge and it works, shed temp recorded at max 36.2C and temp probe about 9inches above the eggs shed size from 1,100to2,024SqMtrs
Hatchability after eggs candled is +95%

 

[Guleesh]

We blamed low humidity for our first batch failing, added more water in last few days and had no probs in subsequent hatchings.

 

[Chickcatcher]

Do you think perhaps adding the water lowered the Temp.
I tried hatching lots of times more than 55 years ago School and home with very mixed success Humidity was perceived to be the problem but when hatching in our sheds now, humidity is low 30%

 

[Guleesh]

Do you think perhaps adding the water lowered the Temp.
I tried hatching lots of times more than 55 years ago School and home with very mixed success Humidity was perceived to be the problem but when hatching in our sheds now, humidity is low 30%

Possibly, I would have thought temperature would be unaffected and kept steady by thermostat, our house is always cold so maybe easy for incubator to cool quickly, also we make sure incubator is placed somewhere away from doors or windows and away from air movement essentially.

I read somewhere the humidity was needed to soften the membrane under the shell, I understand it goes kind of leathery when too dry?

We've only done a handful of hatchings but once humidity was sorted we've been having good success.

We've got some duck eggs in there atm due in a few days, we've found it's quite addictive once you get started.

 

[Devil's advocate]

I must admit even at 56, I kept poultry up to been 18 & still have a soft spot for them.

We have a farmshop & would need about 300 hens if we did not buy in. So 4 flocks of 75, would be great fun to have four types of crossbreds different colour in each flock near to strips of a varieties of veg (we do grow that) and let people walk round, maybe even buy day olds & rear them with silkies.

Only day dreaming though, struggle with our existing workload.

 

[Will 1594]

Look up ms broed incubators , we have one , not the cheapest , but consistently good , if you want any eggs hatching , will fire it up ,the wife has the job perfected ,

 

[Av Gorritt]

We had a "farmyard" flock ages back , and we used to hatch eggs from them - hybrids ? The incubators were in an old 12 x 8 poultry cabin with no insulation at all . They were paraffin heated "Gloster Glevum (I think ) and every night's job was to turn the eggs , fill with paraffin and trim wicks . My uncle who did all this said that the incubators were "air circulation " types and needed the cabin to have a free flow of air to work satisfactorily - a bit draughty in other words . I don't know how true that was but he always managed a very high percentage hatch .

 

[Dry Rot]

I had four expensive forced draught American Marsh Roll-X incubators for hatching quail eggs, 200 quail eggs in each incubator with different grids available for different species. I think they were originally about £400 each (mine were bought s/h!) but eventually the fans failed and the electronics controllers died. Being a horder, I was reluctant to throw them out.

Then recently it occurred to me that the turning mechanism and cabinets were still good, so I replaced the fans with computer fans (£9 each) and the heater controllers with W1209 circuit boards direct from China (£2 each delivered) and I've got three out of the four back up working again, probably better than original. The W1209 temperature control boards are really good and used world-wide. Th Marsh replacement boards are over £60! Just do a Google and read the reviews. I think the Chinese temperature controllers are about £6 each here in the UK which is still a bargain.

I found no added humidity was needed during incubation as the UK climate is damp enough, but for best hatching the bottom of the incubator needed to be flooded.

 

[beefandsleep]

I had four expensive forced draught American Marsh Roll-X incubators for hatching quail eggs, 200 quail eggs in each incubator with different grids available for different species. I think they were originally about £400 each (mine were bought s/h!) but eventually the fans failed and the electronics controllers died. Being a horder, I was reluctant to throw them out.

Then recently it occurred to me that the turning mechanism and cabinets were still good, so I replaced the fans with computer fans (£9 each) and the heater controllers with W1209 circuit boards direct from China (£2 each delivered) and I've got three out of the four back up working again, probably better than original. The W1209 temperature control boards are really good and used world-wide. Th Marsh replacement boards are over £60! Just do a Google and read the reviews. I think the Chinese temperature controllers are about £6 each here in the UK which is still a bargain.

I found no added humidity was needed during incubation as the UK climate is damp enough, but for best hatching the bottom of the incubator needed to be flooded.

Thanks for that, I’ve ordered one to fix my old poly hatch up. Genuine part was £70, I wasn’t going to bother.

 

[JP1]

Welsummer

Or Ixworth my "local" breed and a truly dual purpose bird